What is the Iliad?

• one of two ancient Greek epic

poems traditionally attributed to
Homer (possible multiple authors)
• commonly dated to the late 9th or to
the 8th century BC
• the oldest extant work of literature
in the ancient Greek language
• first work of European literature
• concerns events during the tenth
and final year in the siege of the city
of Troy, by the Greeks
What is the Iliad?
• considered by Greeks of the
classical age and after as the most
important works in Ancient Greek
literature
• recitation was a central part of
Greek religious festivals.
• would be spoken or sung all night
(modern readings last around 20
hours), with audiences coming and
going for parts they particularly
enjoyed
What is the Iliad?
• concentrates on the wrath of
Achilles
• begins with the dispute between
Achilles and Agamemnon
(in medias res)
• ends with the funeral rites of Hector
• background, early years of the war
and its end not narrated
• part of a larger cycle of epic poems
of varying lengths and authors
Homer
• a legendary early Greek poet
traditionally credited with writing the
major Greek epics The Iliad and
The Odyssey
• For the Greeks of the 7th century
BC. however, these books were
their history. Their past had been
obliterated by the destruction of
Mycenaean Civilization.
• Herodotus: wrote that Homer was a
Greek from Ionia on the west coast
of Asia Minor
Homer
Homer
• depicted by tradition as a blind
minstrel wandering from place to
place reciting poems that had come
down to him from a very old oral
tradition
• Many scholars believe that the
books as they exist today were not
written by a single person and were
not put in writing until centuries
after they took their present form.
Characters
• Achaeans (Greeks)
• Trojans
• Women
Characters: (Achaeans)
• Agamemnon: King of Mycenae, and
leader of the Achaeans
• Achilles: King of the Myrmidions,
foremost Achaean warror, he clashes
with Agamemnon and sits out much of
the combat. After the death of
Patrolocus: he returns to battle and
slays Hector.
• Odysseus: King of Ithaca, the most
clever Achaean commander. The hero
of the Odyssey
• Menelaus: King of Sparta and husband
of Helen
Characters: (Trojans)
• Hector: son of the Trojan king
Priam and the foremost warrior of
Troy, slain by Achilles
• Paris: son of King Priam, he is the
lover who stole Helen and started
the Trojan war
• Priam: the aged king of Troy
Characters: (Women)
• Hecuba: Queen of Troy, wife of Priam,
• Helen: wife of Menelaus, now espoused
to Paris
• Andromache: Hector’s wife and mother
of their infant son, Astyanax
• Cassandra: daughter of Priam;
prophetess; first courted and then
cursed by Apollo. As her punishment for
offending him, she accurately foresees
the fate of Troy, including her own death
and the deaths of her entire family, but
does not have the power to do anything
about it.
Plot
The Iliad begins with these lines:

μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος

οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε'
ἔθηκεν,

Sing, goddess, the rage of Achilles

the son of Peleus,
the destructive rage that sent
countless ills on the Achaeans...
Plot
• Nine years after the start of the
Trojan War, the Achaean army
sacks Chryse, a town allied with
Troy.
• During the battle, the Achaeans
capture a pair of beautiful maidens,
Chryseis and Briseis.
Plot
• Chryseis’s father, Chryses, who
serves as a priest of the god Apollo,
offers an enormous ransom in
return for his daughter, but
Agamemnon refuses to give
Chryseis back. Chryses then prays
to Apollo, who sends a plague upon
the Achaean camp.
Plot
• After many Achaeans die, Agamemnon
reluctantly gives her up but then demands
Briseis from Achilles as compensation.
• Achilles returns to his tent in the army
camp and refuses to fight in the war any
longer. He vengefully yearns to see the
Achaeans destroyed and asks his mother,
the sea-nymph Thetis, to enlist the
services of Zeus, king of the gods, toward
this end. The Trojan and Achaean sides
have declared a cease-fire with each
other, but now the Trojans breach the
treaty and Zeus comes to their aid.
Plot
• With Zeus supporting the Trojans and
Achilles refusing to fight, the Achaeans
suffer great losses. Several days of fierce
conflict ensue, including duels between
Paris and Menelaus and between Hector
and Ajax.
• The Achaeans make no progress; The
Trojans push the Achaeans back.
• Defeat seems imminent, because without
the ships, the army will be stranded at
Troy and almost certainly destroyed.
Plot
• Patroclus takes Achilles’ place in battle,
wearing his armor.
• Apollo knocks Patroclus’s armor to the
ground, and Hector slays him.
• When Achilles discovers that Hector has
killed Patroclus, he fills with such grief
and rage that he agrees to reconcile with
Agamemnon and rejoin the battle.
• Thetis goes to Mount Olympus and
persuades the god Hephaestus to forge
Achilles a new suit of armor, which she
presents to him the next morning. Achilles
then rides out to battle at the head of the
Achaean army.
Plot
• Meanwhile, Hector, not expecting Achilles
to rejoin the battle, has ordered his men
to camp outside the walls of Troy.
• Achilles cuts down every Trojan he sees.
• Finally, Achilles confronts Hector outside
the walls of Troy. Ashamed at the poor
advice that he gave his comrades, Hector
refuses to flee inside the city with them.
• Achilles chases him around the city’s
periphery three times, but the goddess
Athena finally tricks Hector into turning
around and fighting Achilles.
Plot
• Achilles kills Hector.
• He lashes the body to the back of his
chariot and drags it across the battlefield
to the Achaean camp.
• The triumphant Achaeans celebrate
Patroclus’s funeral with a long series of
athletic games in his honor.
• Each day for the next nine days, Achilles
drags Hector’s body in circles around
Patroclus’s funeral bier.
Plot
• At last, the gods agree that Hector
deserves a proper burial.
• Zeus sends the god Hermes to escort
King Priam, Hector’s father and the ruler
of Troy, into the Achaean camp.
• Priam tearfully pleads with Achilles to take
pity on a father bereft of his son and
return Hector’s body.
• Achilles finally relents and returns
Hector’s corpse to the Trojans.
• Both sides agree to a temporary truce,
and Hector receives a hero’s funeral.
Themes
• homecoming
• glory in battle
• wrath or anger
• pride
• fate